OBJECTIVE: To analyze the cultural meanings of infantile asthma from the perspective of the mother/carer of the child. METHODOLOGICAL PROCEDURES: Qualitative research conducted in 2004, in the city of Fortaleza (Northeastern Brazil). An ethnographic approach was utilized, consisting of participant observation and interviews with seven mothers, accompanying their children in a hospital emergency ward. Thematic analysis was the technique employed when identifying the meanings of mothers' discourse. ANALYSIS OF RESULTS: Two discussion categories were identified: "disinformation on illness" in which it was possible to perceive that the mothers were not informed with respect to their children's illness; and "cultural care" in which they relate information on caretaking and they use resources of popular knowledge to prevent their children's asthma, such as environmental care and the use of popular remedies, based on medicinal plants. CONCLUSIONS: The disinformation and lack of maternal knowledge on infantile asthma among the mothers indicate the need for an intense educational program, problematizing in nature and based on dialogue, conducted in close collaboration with the treatment aimed at improving the prognosis of the disease.
Asthma; Child Welfare; Mother-Child Relations; Anthropology, Cultural; Qualitative Research